Evening Star Newspaper, December 21, 1930, Page 96

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THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 21, 1930 & Tur Bripge Forum * Dealing the Cards andl Studying the Refz_dt_ing Hands Will Help School Any Player. NE of the best ways to learn cer- tain things about the game is to sneak off alone, get the cards, deal them at random face up, and then figure out what would be the correct bidding and play clear on from the dealer’s declaration to the final card. Some of the topnotchers would love to capave a dollar for every hour they have spent this way. One of them, who could be named, enjoys this so much now, after his arrival in the first flight, that he has sat up all night with no companions but his beloved cards. Small wonder that such a man is a genius at the com- petitive table! Other things being anywhere near equal, the man with the greatest love for his work or his play will win in the end. The Game’s Blue Ribbon. 'O tournament held during the bridge year is on quite as elaborate a scale in total number and importance of events or total entries as the annual champicnship joust of the American Bridge League, which kept eyes focused on Cleveland all last week: There is one particular competition, however, which in many respects outranks any one event on last week’s program. It is the annual play for the Harold S. Vanderbilt trophy to be held in the Ritz Tower, New York, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week. From the standpoint of quality of competition this contest has become in three years the blue ribbon of con- t bridge, just as the old Vanderbilt Cup was the outstanding prize in the heyday of automobile racing. The trophy is now held by the New York Bridge Whist Club team, composed of Lee Langdon, Michael T. Gottlieb, Harry B. Raffel and John P. Matheys. They will have a man’s size job on their hands ¢o repeat against other great New York feams and star combinations from other tities. _ A Law a Week. 8 the penalty for a renounce the same for the declarer as for the adversaries? No. In one respect only is the procedure the same: Having failed to follow suit, any player except dummy may correct his renounce at any time before he or his partner has led or played to the fol- lowing trick, and thus prevent any re- voke penalty. Beyond that the law treats declarer and the adversaries differently. The declarer may require an adversary, B corvecting his renounce, to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, or if he prefers may instead treat the card played in error as an exposed card, sub- Ject to call by him whenever it may be legally played, but declarer cannot exact both of these penalties at-the same Bime. When a declarer has renounced gither adversary may require him to play .- bhis highest or lowest of the suit led if the adversary on his left has played Rfter the renounce, but not if the latter hqsnotyetphyed. In the case of any Penounce which has been corrected any player who played after the renounce - has the privilege of withdrawing his Bard and, without penalty, substituting gnother; if an opponent of the offender bas led to the next trick, he may change ghat lead. Next week—What is the penalty if a Player on the defensive side revokes, and on a later trick of the same hand his partner revokes? What if both partners pevoke on the same trick? : The Informatory Double. !)LAYER&who have just taken up auc- tion are always perplexed by an in- . Bormatory double. A letter just received Pells about a dealer bidding one no frump, West and North passing and East doubling. The writer continues: 444 . By Shepard Barclay. Our Oppoflu}zit‘}/. When our best-laid plans Seem of no avail And our hard-fought schemes Only fail and fail, When the luck seems wed To the other side We should not regret 1] We are sorely tried— For the man with nerve Who will plug along Gets his chance to shine When the breaks go wrong. which made defeat of the no trump dec- laration the most profitable move. The bidding most certainly may “go around again.” In fact, it continues to go around as often as nécessary umtil such time as three players pass in suc- cession. Such an informatory double shows strength enough to take the responsibil- ity for a bid by partner with a worthless hand. It is informatory when the bid is one no trump and partner has not bid or doubled; or when the bid is one or two of a suit, partner has not bid or doubled, and the double is made at the first opportunity to double that deecla- ration—or, as some define it, at first op- portunity %0 double any declaration. Some even make doubles of three of a suit informatory at all times if partner has not bid or doubled and it is first chance to double. But in the situation given, any experienced player’s double would be informatory. Maybe Nobody’s Sane. IKAOINI a bridger rabid emough to make a long-distance phone call from Texas to New York to get his query answered! That happened the other day, when Wilbur C. Whitehead an- swered a ring from Dallas asking about this hand: &K4 910986 ®AJWES Ho¢ He explained that, in his system, a five- card suit headed by ace-jack-ten re- -quired a full quick trick on the side— the very stand his communicant took. The latter hung on the phone nearly an hour, going into great detail about the matter. Late in the evening came an- I've spent over a hundred dollars on this call to settle the matter and I lose any- way.” Asked what he lost, he answered: “Two grand; they laid six grand against my two.” Contract Systems. HOWmldmbldthetolIoflnghand, neither side being vulnerable and South the dealer? x 4 P15432 . ¢98432 HEIC oA i maons 47106543 VEQl0S YAS oQIN06 E 5 o7 SASTS $Q6s4 SOUTH AK9873 vJs ¢ AKS &»I02 South naturally opens, under any sys- tem, with a perfectly obvious bid of one spade. Many players holding the West hand would double, but this might risk a pass by partner if he held length in the spade suit and an otherwise worth- less hand. There is just one way that West can compel his partner to bid—by bidding two spades. At such an early stage of the bidding, partner not having bid, this does not in any way indicate strong probability of slamp but only virtual certainty of game if correet fit with partner’s hand can be found. Mrs. Nan P. De Wolf, one of the truly progressive teachers in New York social circles, happened to hold the West hand during this deal, which she considers an ideal illustration of the merits of that conventional bid. Her two-spade call the opponents’ own suit. How would you bid it with neither side vulnerable? 4100873 ¥ None éJosez © SEQS3 aKJE RORTH YVAQJ10852 g RS 20 SOUTH AAQ4 VE?763 A & 10852 Auction Problems. T would you lead from the fol- lowing hand against a dealer’s original bid of one no-trump? Of one _spade? One diamond? One club? Why? #Q10632 ¥ Q10632 ¢EKQ & B Against no trump, the longest suit should always be chosen when no suits have been bid by either side. -With two long suits, the stronger should be led. With two of equal length and strength, the higher ranking. That, of course, The New Problem. WHAT would you lead from the fol- lowing hand against a dealer’s orig- inal bid of one no-trump? Of one spade? One heart? One diamond? &AK109 98652 ¢432 Reducing Mine Danger. Omamummum fatalities and one that could be eliminated to a large extent with a little care is that T ' |

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